Princess-Marine marriage irrevocably over after 5 years

LAS VEGAS  The five-year marriage is over between a former LDS Marine and a young Bahraini royal whose story provided the basis for a made-for-television movie, "The Princess and the Marine."

"It was what she wanted," Jason Johnson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of the divorce he and Meriam Al-Khalifa filed for Nov. 17, the day after their fifth wedding anniversary. It calls them "incompatible in marriage."

Johnson, who had sneaked his beloved into the United States and was court-martialed over the relationship, cast the tale as a "Romeo and Juliet" love affair that disintegrated amid Las Vegas nightlife, opposition by his wife's family and at least one death threat.

Al-Khalifa was not represented by a lawyer in the divorce filing. No one answered her apartment door Monday, and it was unclear whether she planned to stay in the United States.

The story started in January 1999 when Johnson was stationed in Bahrain, an island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Al-Khalifa is one of five daughters of Sheik Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a distant relative of Bahrain's king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

They met at a mall and fell in love, though he was a Mormon and she was a Muslim, forbidden to marry a non-Muslim.

Her family ordered an end to the romance. They continued to secretly exchange letters through a store employee at the mall.

Johnson spirited Al-Khalifa to the United States when his tour of duty ended in November 1999, using forged documents and a disguise including a New York Yankees baseball cap.

Johnson, who served an LDS mission to Texas before joining the Marines, was court-martialed for his role, demoted and discharged from the Marines. Al-Khalifa sought political asylum in the United States.

The couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 16, 1999. He was 23. She was 19.

The story made headlines. Besides the TV movie, the couple made the rounds of television talk shows. They rented an apartment in Las Vegas and lived off money from the movie. Johnson got a job as a parking valet on the Las Vegas Strip.